Week 2: Crafting the story, and finding your intent!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK TWO Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between December 19-25 I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Here is this week's assignment!
1. Do some research about your piece by reading online articles! Try to find the composer's intention for the composition!
2. Think about what you discover and what resonates with you. What do you want to illuminate in YOUR performance?
3. Write a few sentences about your experience. Anything you learned? Something surprised you? What is the general story you want to tell?
4. Submit a video of yourself practicing (You can combine steps 3-4 where you talk to us about the story and then play for us!).
-
Mozart also went on to compose many well known operas (and other masterpieces) in his lifetime. However, at one time, he must have been disappointed when the Court theatre in Salzburg was closed down in 1775. He made many trips out of Salzburg searching for opportunity to make his name, including the trip to Mannheim and Paris in 1977-8.
He is said to have written the keyboard sonata in C major, K309, in Mannheim during that trip. Mozart dedicated this sonata to his student, a Rosa Cannabich. He must have been as fond of the piece as he was of his student, as he described the piece as "a magnificent sonata in C major with a closing rondo, my own invention" in a letter to his father.
The sonata was described by his father as having a Mannheim style. Mannheim at that time was home to many fine virtuoso musicians and an orchestra, as well as to many fine composers. The style of the Mannheim school (as the musicians and composers were collectively known) was said to have been characterised by the use of a more varied and shifting dynamic range, and increased use of crescendo and diminuendo. Mozart was acquianted with musicians and composers in Mannheim during his time there, and it is possible that this has influenced how he wrote the sonata and gives us clues as to how thought that it should be played.-
Natalie Peh Thanks Natalie. I love hearing about the backstory of these pieces. His student Rosa must have been an amazing pianist. Looking forward to hearing more of this sonata from you.
-
Vidhya Bashyam thanks, glad you liked the back story! Rosa's father was the concert master in Mannheim at that time, and Rosa herself later became a well known classical pianist.
I hope to share the sonata, or at least the movement I'm working on, soon :)
-
Natalie Peh Thank you for this great back-story! Very interesting. I just bought a Mozart biography that I'm looking forward to. (Currently reading about Beethoven)
-
Natalie Peh Thank you Natalie for your interesting summary of the story of this lively Sonata.
-
Natalie Peh Very interesting!
-
-
In my practising and performance of the Gmajor prelude and fugue by Bach WTC book 2 I’m trying to convey a happy carefree mood full of energy and drive. I think G major is often a bright and optimistic key especially in Bach. I think the voices in both prelude and fugue are quite instrumental sounding rather than vocal.
I’m also working on No 6 June from the Seasons by Tchaikovsky at the moment which is in the contrasting darker key of G minor. It has a subtitle of Barcarolle which was a song of Venetian Gondoliers and begins with a left had rocking figure which is like a boat in water. The piece is often published with an accompanying verse : “ Let us go to the shore; there the waves will kiss our feet. With the mysterious sadness the stars shine down on us”. It’s quite obvious from this that the piece should be reflective and mysterious. There seems to be a passing of themes between the hands which I thought might be like gondoliers calling to each other under the echoing bridges of Venice at night. I thought that might justify a bit of pedal as well.
The piece, after a short faster merrier dance section returns to the main theme before a strange descending chromatic coda which I think reminds me of something sinking to the bottom of a river or canal. The final bars rise again but with repeated arpeggiated chords which are like a clock striking in the distance. I will post my progress on this piece soon. In the meantime here is my favourite recording of the piece https://youtu.be/LvPWHxMDWH8 by Oleg Bashnyakovich.
-
Hazel Thank you for your thoughts on these pieces. I did listen to Oleg's performance, very beautiful!
-
Hazel thank you for sharing! I tried to learn this lovely piece some time ago, but the dance section threw me off. You have reminded me to get back to it again. Looking forward to your playing!
-
Hazel You can definitely hear the Venetian gondola element here.
-
-
The "Revolutionary" Etude by Chopin was not labelled or characterised by the composer, however it does reflect the environment and emotions surrounding the period when it was written. Having left Warsaw aged 20 in November 1830 to advance his career in Vienna, Chopin was to learn that his native country had staged an uprising against the ruling Russian regime. Having initially attempted to join his close friends who were involved, the composer was never to return to Poland and instead resigned to followed events from afar - with his correspondence from the time reflecting anxiety, fear, rage and personal grief. By the time Chopin reached Stuttgart on what was to become a trip to start a new life in Paris, he learned of the fall of Warsaw and brutal repression of the uprising following several months of conflict. Although his works are always polished and stylish, a number of works linked with this period (including the Revolutionary Etude) seem to reflect his barely contained emotions at the personal and political turmoil of this period - family and friends in mortal danger, his effective exile from Warsaw and failure to settle into professional musical life in Vienna created a general state of flux, and it was not yet apparent if Paris would provide success and stability for the composer.
By the time of its publication some months later in Paris as the final piece of a set of 12 studies, Chopin had started to find a place in a new and vibrant city from where he would excel as composer, teacher and performer on his own terms.
An update on my progress for next week's concert is below, and there is still a lot of improvement required.
Wishing you all the best for 2023 and continued successful practicing.
Derek
-
That’s really great playing Derek. Very clear articulation. You’ve inspired me to put this on my “Have A Go” list for this year!
-
Derek McConville Great playing, Derek! I hear your progress threw this difficult piece. Also enjoyed your backstory very much.
-
Derek McConville This is sounding great, Derek. Thank you for the back-story. It allowed me to hear the piece in a different way than I've heard it before.
-
Sindre Skarelven thank you!
-
Michelle R thank you!
-
Derek McConville Sounds great, Derek! With all the inner pathos of the piece!
-
Derek McConville sounds good, Derek! You've captured a sense of drama.
-
-
I'm back from vacation with family for Christmas, so I could finally make a recording of the third movement of the Mozart k310 in A-minor. This movement need more work to feel secure (as do all :P), so I probably will stick with the first movement in the concert. But I will make a video of the complete sonata soon.
This sonata is one of only two sonatas in the minor keys (out of eighteen). It was part of the aesthetics of the time to use the major modes more frequently, as part of the job for the music was to uplift the soul. The minor keys then being seen as more sad and tragic. It must be said that even thought Mozart writes most of his work in major keys, he frequently visit the minor (and does it very well)
The sonata in A-minor is written pretty shortly after Mozart's mother died, so it might reflect some of the feelings he was going threw. Much drama, restlessness, and a feeling of not being able to escape a certain faith. But also great beauty, feeling of calm, maybe a reflecting peace in the second movement.
The third movement is a storm from beginning to end, and quite remarkable I would say. There is a a short section in the related A-major, that might bring some hope. But like the first movement, it's inevitable that this sonata will end in minor.
-
Sindre Skarelven Wow, Sindre! I thought this was wonderful. Since in a former life I choreographed gymnastics routines, when I hear music I tend to close my eyes and "see" it expressed in dance/tumbling. This movment had, for most of it, a strong sense of urgency and of an almost frantic desire not to allow emotion out, but it was coming out anyway. Thank you!
-
Michelle R Thank you so much, Michelle! Great descriptions of the movement, I feel the same way. I'm sure this movement would go well with some choreographed routine!
-
Sindre Skarelven You have certainly caught the trauma and drama of this movement.
-
Angela Fogg Thank you, Angela!
-
Sindre Skarelven thanks for sharing the background and context of this piece and the lovely playing, Sindre! I certainly felt the anguished pacing of the piece, and the sense of restlessness came across very well. Awesome job, as always!
-
Natalie Peh Thank you, Natalie!
-
Sindre Skarelven Certainly it is a music of pure anxiety and you show it perfectly well. Looking forward to hearing the whole Sonata. You are doing a great, great, job!
-
